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October 2018 Test Drive Meme

OCTOBER 2018 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to October’s Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: HALLOWEEN HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Wet and rotting corpses/zombies, ghosts, violence, blood, knives, possessed dolls, options for underage drinking

Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

IT’S JUST A BUNCH OF HOCUS POCUS

It’s not Halloween if you don’t make a trip to a cheesy haunted house. At least, that’s what everyone in Deerington likes to say. The old Victorian stands at the top of a hill, rickety and in desperate need of a new paint job. The yard and porch have been decorated with what you’d expect for your typical haunted house; fake spider webs spread across the overhang, painted foam grave markers with cheesy names like “Here lies Richard Cranium” and “BEWARE!!” in creepy letter etchings. You can see the blinking of variously timed strobe lights in some windows and the shadow of what you’re pretty sure is a full-sized doll standing in the window, meant to look like someone staring out at you. The rocking chair on the porch near the door has a skeleton with a bowl of candy in his lap, and a sign is propped up against the wall next to him.

“ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. TOUCH NOTHING AND NOTHING WILL TOUCH YOU!”

Well that sounds promising.

The first few rooms you enter are appropriately cheesy. There’s the silly burst of air that you hear just before a plastic figuring pops out of a poorly constructed coffin, the clicking sound of the machinery inside echoing in the room when it starts to pull back and the lid closes once again. There’s fog machines trying to give the appropriately spooky air, stuffed sheets shaped to look like dead bodies wrapped up laying in piles on the floor with fake blood staining the white fabric, black lighting to show off words scribbled on doors like “TURN BACK NOW” and “SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES.” Nothing you haven’t seen before. It might be even worse than things you’ve seen before, over the top cheesy, boring enough to give a yawn. Each door seems to open on its own so you don’t even have to touch the handles.

As you make your way through the next automatic door, the room you walk into is different than those before it. It’s a regular children’s room. A bed against the wall near the window, a dresser in the corner, a small desk with a chair. Nothing out of the ordinary, save for the lights not being on, and the strange flickering light in the closet. You step towards it, figuring you’re in for another jump scare, but the door doesn’t open. Whether you’re naturally the curious sort or not, something in the back of your mind makes you want to open the door and see what’s on the inside.

If you fight it and walk towards the next automatic door, you’ll find you’ve walked out to the backyard of the house, those same foam decorations and a dozen or more jack o’ lanterns lighting your way on a path back to the town.

If you choose to pull the door open, however, it’ll take you into yet another room, with a flickering television playing nothing but static. Once you step past the doors of the closet, they slam shut behind you and whoever else dared to enter. The doors won’t lock no matter what you do, no matter how strong the person shaking the handles or pushing against the wood may be. You realize you broke the one rule; you’ve touched something. But can things now really touch you?

The only light source in the whole room is that television and it’s not lighting up much inside the room around it. If you squint when the TV is at its brightest setting, you can just make out another door. Your exit, you hope. But as you make your way towards the door, the flickering suddenly stops, the TV steadily bright, a low humming noise coming from the screen, and suddenly the door seems several more feet away from you than it was a second ago. Before you can reach the door, there’s the sound of trickling water from behind you. If you choose to look back, you’ll see something coming out from the screen - a girl with soaked clothing and pale, rotted skin. She emerges fully from the glass and starts to move towards you. You know it’s best to start running for that door. If you stay and try to fight, you’ll find that no regular weapons work on her, though special weapons and powers that are effective against spirits will definitely do the trick. For those who don’t have any of these at their disposal, however, there is one more hope besides just trying to run; two old school VHS tape sit on the table near by, a fancy machine between them that is meant to copy one to the other. Work as a team and have one distract her while the other records, and you’ll find that she disappears as quickly as she flickered on the screen and the TV will return to static.

Regardless of what you choose before carrying on, the next room you come to as the door slams and locks behind you is entirely different. Brightly lit and filled with what seems like hundreds of porcelain dolls, it’s almost hard to tell where there could possibly be another exit hidden among the massive shelves. You can start to wind your way through them, but before long, you start to hear the sound of running feet, the jingling of bells, the swish of satin, and most eerily the sounds of children giggling - but there’s nothing that sounds save about them. Some of the dolls you saw on the last shelf seem like they’ve moved and are sitting in the corner or laying in a new position on a new shelf. Sometimes you swear you can see their heads turn to watch you pass, but it has to be a trick of the light, doesn’t it?

That is until one of those dolls runs by you, brandishing something shiny in their hands - something sharp. A knife, you realize too late, as it tries to slice at your legs and knock you down. You can kick them away and they’ll go flying, and when the porcelain smashes, the doll will scream in agony. You notice there’s blood pouring from the hole that formed, spreading quickly across the ground. The dolls are easy to kill, but are they really just dolls? You can take your time to contemplate that later, as now you have to fight your way through the violent and armed toys to reach the door at the end of the maze of shelves. Hopefully you can get out without too many severe injuries.

When (or if) you do manage to get to the next room, you seem to have a chance to take a breath and tend to any wounds. It’s decorated like the room of a small cottage, a large pot over the fireplace that isn’t lit, and several jars full of (possibly rotting) food and herbs on the shelves. You see a book on the stand in the center, latched shut and covered in dust. You can open it, if you want, but remember the warning you ignored that got you in trouble in the first place. It’s probably better to carry on to the next room.

If you do choose to open the book, though, there will be eerily glowing text lining the pages, the light will seem to poor out and fill the room, and you’ll be transported back out in front of the house.

Those who continued through the door will find themselves out in the backyard. Just like for those who got out sooner, there are dozens of jack o lanterns, but the graves don’t look like they’re made of foam this time. They’re real stone, engraved with real names and real dates this time. And the ground underneath them seems to be moving, like someone’s trying to crawl out of there. Better not to wait around. Soon as you start to move down the path, you’ll start to hear the sounds of groans as the undead start to crawl from their own graves, pulling themselves up through the dirt, and determined to get to the only food source they see - you. The zombies seem like they’re never ending, coming from every inch of the yard, but at least they’re just like normal zombies - completely incapable of being killed unless you cut off the head. There are shovels lying next to a few graves if you need a quick weapon, but there’s also still always the option to run as fast as you can up the stone path to the front of the house and back towards the street.

When you do finally manage to get back to the front, there’s a momentary blinding flash of light, disorienting anyone near it for a few seconds. When it finally fades, any leftover zombies chasing you have disappeared and the house looks like the same, cheesy haunted house you walked up to in the first place. If for some reason you decide to go and explore the backyard again, the grass will be back to normal, and the graves will all be replaced by cheaply painted foam once more.

Was that all in your head? Who knows. But maybe it’s best to just get out of here.

WE DID THE MASH

Somehow the street lamps have all been converted to oil based flames, the Authority are in witch hats, and every where you go there is music that seems to be playing from faintly glowing bats hanging upside down from telephone wires. The bats will open their mouths in succession, seeming somehow capable of producing the sounds of instruments and singers alike of popular Halloween songs.

Yards are decorated as thoroughly as the front of stores. Maybe you haven't bothered to decorate, but your neighbor sure has! Fake gravestones are propped up in yards, giant fake spiders in trees, and no matter where you walk, the ground seems covered in thick, rolling fog from machines. Or at least you hope it's coming from machines. Hell, you can't even find it in yourself to be too worried! Everyone around you is having way too good of a time! And God, there is food everywhere! Might as well grab a bite while you're out, huh?

It's tempting to break loose and dance. Jack-O-Lanterns absolutely crowd the streets. There's more than you can even begin to count, and all of them are lit all throughout the night. Even if you accidentally trip over some, they don't seem to catch fire to anything or go out! Some neighbors have camp fires set up with marshmallows to roast, while others have...are those broomsticks? Well that's kinda cool, you guess. Correction: it's really cool since you can actually pick one up and take it for a fly! Make sure to attach a little lamp to the front though because God knows it's dangerous flying at night. The brooms only work if you wear the appropriately provided hats, of course, but you can keep both the broom and hat indefinitely and have a readily available means of flight in Deerington after! Be forewarned though: the brooms are as easily broken as regular brooms and the hats easily blown away in the wind.

TRICK OR TREATS

At any of the events, especially the nighttime partying, you can find any number of the following treats (and their potential side effects):

Donuts (Will make you deliriously happy. Everything is amazing to you. May cause a lot of affection. A lot of affection.)
Candy Apples (You will eagerly tell someone everything you like about them. Talk about a sweet tooth.)
Candy Corn (Will make you extremely sad. Like god, you'll be wondering why you hate yourself so much.)
Pumpkin Spice Lattes (Causes suspicious amounts of obedience and a desire to do what you're told.)
Hot Chocolate (Can provide some minor healing. Best stuff to drink with a common cold!)
Hot or Cold Apple Cider (Nothing will happen. It's just really good.)
Alcoholic Cider (This isn't your grandma's apple cider. This stuff will knock you on your ass. Anyone who drinks this will get wasted regardless of whether or not they are immune to alcohol or even ingest regular food. It only takes one or two before you start to get tipsy, but any more than that and you'll be well on your way to drunk. Please drink responsibly. We don't need any FUIs.)

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

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[ Allura nods, crossing her arms. ]

We've encountered several...unconventional situations with equally unconventional solutions. This place doesn't operate on the same linear cause and effect that we're used to.

[ It's less an attempt to placate and more to try and help Lance come to grips with the situation. it isn't a nice one nor something she wishes on any of her friends or teammates, but the quicker he accepts the reality they're stuck in, the safer they will be. She should have just refused this haunted house all together. That's her fault.

Allura does hear the faint sound of water, but it's Lance's reaction that draws her attention back towards the television. ]

What?

[ Ah.

Lance.

She has some bad news...

She cringes and takes a step back. ]

...I'm not sure if it's our souls that she's after, but she is definitely coming out of the television.

[ Which is, decidedly, not good. The girl seems...wet as well, drips of water coming out of the set and pooling on the ground before it. ]

Is this of Earth!?

[Samara is now halfway out, her arms and body moving in disturbing and squelching wet jerks and Lance backs up instinctively.] Yeah, but only in movies!

[He looks around the room desperately for a clue on what to do. He saw a movie kinda like this a long time ago and couldn't sleep for a month. So he never got around to seeing the sequel, but he knows the basics: cursed video tape, and creepy girl from the well kills you if she catches you and you look like a contorted mummy.]

You can explain the weird linear whatevers about this place later, cause if that's who I think it is and she catches us, we die horribly and painfully. [His voice is trembling a little as old childhood fears start bubbling up from his subconscious. The girl is now completely out of the TV and slowly standing up to walk towards them. He makes a very undignified squeak and then starts waving his arms at her to get her attention.] I'll distract her while you figure out how to escape!

Edited 2018-10-02 05:31 (UTC)

[ Whatever this girl is, it's clearly not good. ]

Movies?!

[ Of course...if this is really a reality of dreams, then theoretically anything is possible. ]

Hold on!

[ Allura backs away, grabbing Lance's shoulder and pulling him with her. Keep some distance between them and the monster girl for a moment. ]

I will do what I can, but how did the protagonist defeat her in the movie?

[The slow and jerky approach of the girl in the well freaked him out when he watched the movie, but in this moment, he's glad for it because they have time to figure this out. Now if only he had a helpful answer to her question.

His eyes remain glued to Samara as he fumbles for a way to tell Allura they're probably screwed.] She just made a copy of the cursed video tape the ghost girl came from. For some reason that-

[He looks over to see the out-dated tech needed to make a copy on the table near the television.] There! [He points to it, but the girl is now standing between them and the tape copying set-up and getting closer.]

[ If she hadn't already seen some strange VCR/VHS contraptions in her stay, Allura would have been horribly confused. Really, who recorded anything on reels anymore? Earth couldn't have been that far behind, could it have been? But that's a conversation for another time. Her eyes immediately snap to where he's pointing. ]

Right!

[ Make a copy of the tape while a monster tries to eat or do who knows what to her friend?

No problem. Except for the girl standing between them and the tape. ]

Go to the left and I'll go the right!

[ She's bound to follow one of them. ]

[Lance nods and hops into action, leaping to the left and waving his arms to try and get the attention of the ghost. As scared as he is of the creepy girl from the movie that gave him nightmares as a child, he'd rather be the one she chases over Allura, or any of his other friends for that matter.

Luckily, or unluckily, depending on your outlook, Samara sets her sights on Lance and jerkily flickers her way over to him. In a moment she's suddenly much closer than she was before and he yelps.] AHH! I forgot she could do that!

[He nearly falls over in his surprise, but the memory of how that is exactly how one of the characters in the movie died helps keep him on his feet, though he does stumble into a wall. He then hops away from the wall and starts walking backwards trying to keep pace with the creepy little girl so he doesn't run out of space to run.]

[ Allura jumps to the right and is left unattended. It isn't a good situation either way, but with the monster girl distracted, Allura takes her role readily and goes for the recorder and cassette. Lance's shout brings her a moment of pause as she looks worriedly over her shoulder, but he's back on his feet.

This really is a ticking clock. "Dying horribly and painfully" isn't what they signed up for.

Turning her attention back to the contraption, she finds that it has two compartments and a series of small, unimpressive buttons. Poking her finger through one of the plastic flaps, she sees a cassette already in place. Right. There are a few stacked on the table and she just grabs one at random and shoves it in the next compartment.

Right. Okay.

Now record.

What is record? There are just some symbols and shapes. ]

Which button begins the recording process?!

[ Allura spares a quick look in Lance's direction and pushes a button at random.

She pushed "fast forward". ]

[Lance can't see what button she pushed, his gaze locked on his soon to be killer, but he hears Allura and tries to wrack his brain for the right answer. This is such an old movie, humans haven't used tech with those old analog symbols since before he was born.]

Uhhh! I think it's the red circle! [He dares to shut his eyes for a moment to envision that part of the movie and other old vintage films he saw that featured tape recorders, then snaps them open as the sound of wet squelching feet gets too close for comfort.]

Y-Yeah! It's the circle! IT'S THE CIRCLE! [He stumbles back again in a fit of panic and Samara warps closer once again, she could reach out and touch him with a couple more steps.]

Ah!

[ Oops??

She slams the button again and that doesn't seem to stop it, so then it's right to the red circle. Allura jams the button with her thumb. ]

I've got it!

[ At least she hopes so. Allura whips around, ready to knock this creature to the ground if she must. ]

[Whatever Allura did seems to have had some sort of success since the girl stops ominously making her way towards Lance, hand outstretched and fingers millimeters from his chest. Her arm drops and she stands still for a long moment while the video is copied, and then she vanishes.

A small whimper sounds deep in his throat and then Lance collapses to the ground on his hands and knees, looking pale.] That was the worst experience of my life!

[And he's died before. Allura saved him from that too, god he owes her something nice and sparkly in the very least for all these saves.]

[ There's an audible sigh of relief from Allura as well. (Though she probably would have benefitted from getting to punch the girl, it's probably for the best.) When Lance collapses, she goes to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder. ]

But we survived. That's what is most important, isn't it?

[ Also if that is the worst...he's really not going to enjoy himself much in town.

But he most definitely can get her something sparkly, in debt or otherwise. ]

We should leave this place. The longer we linger, the more we risk repeating this scenario.

[Lance nods and then gets to his feet. Don't mind him, he's just dramatic and over the top by nature and he bounces back pretty quick. He lets out a breath and offers her a small smile.]

Thanks Allura. And yeah, the last thing I want is a repeat of that.

[He visibly shudders and heads over to the door on the other side of the room. It opens for them and once they step inside it slams and locks just like last time. He looks around at all the dolls and blinks at the brighter lights after being in that dimly lit room from before.] This... isn't so bad?

[Famous last words.]

[ Famous last words indeed.

Allura was hoping they may end up in another hallway, but it seems they really can't be that lucky.

She exhales through her nose, casting a suspicious glance around the room. ]

Be on your guard. Nothing in this place is as it seems.

[ She steps in front and motions for Lance to follow. There must be an exit somewhere at the end of this, right? But the deeper in the room they go, the more and more dolls they find, all lined up on display. ]

Right. [Lance agrees in a somewhat hushed voice. Dolls are creepy, even if they're inanimate objects, and after what he just experienced with the ghost girl, he's willing to bet things are about to get real weird real quick.

Ah, and there it is. The sound of running feet and then children's laughter.] Great, haunted dolls. Why not?

[He has his guard up as Allura suggested, and he has lots of movie trivia knowledge from Earth, but who can really prepare themselves for haunted dolls?] Any minute now, one of 'em is gonna try and hack our feet off... any minute now...

[ That's more than a little disconcerting. ]

Hack our feet off?

[ She looks down. No dolls around their ankles, at least not yet. But Lance was right before so she can only assume that he's right now. ]

Let's be quick--

[ Except she pauses and has to double take. Allura looks behind them, then back ahead to a doll that stands at the edge of the next bend in the display. ]

...Lance...

[ Erm. ]

...Isn't that the same one from the entrance?

[Lance follows where she's looking and his hands go up to his head as he groans.] I knew it, I knew this would happen.

[Yes, that is the same one from the entrance and hoping that it's just a double and not the same exact one that somehow managed to move over here is probably really naive. Then, while their attention is on the magically teleported doll that seems to be staring into their souls, another doll comes running from the other side brandishing a knife.]

Allura, look out! [Lance notices the doll aiming for her leg and automatically moves to intervene, trying to kick it away.]

[ How do they deal with this? There are hundreds of dolls around them and they cannot feasibly keep track of each one. And if they are sentient and can move on their own, then...

Allura whirls around as he shouts, just in time to see his foot connect with the doll's face. It's body is sent backwards, knife falling to the floor, and the porcelain that makes up it's body cracks on impact. There's a groan as its arm twitches, reaching out for the knife. ]

Lance--run!

[ That is the only way they're getting out of here.

She charges forward, knocking their stalker friend out of the way as she rounds the display. ]

If there isn't an exit then we'll create one!

[ She is fully prepared to punch a wall, if that's what it comes to. There is no way they could easily escape if every one of those dolls became active. ]

[Lance doesn't need to be told twice and follows her, trusting that her Altean strength should be able to solve this issue somehow and watches her back as they kick their way through the attacking dolls.]

This place is like a maze! [He comments and then pauses to pull one of the shelves down behind him and crush several of the dolls that was on their heels.]

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